Black Cat
Former cat burglar Felicia Hardy became a crime fighter when she became romantically attracted to and involved with Spider-Man. Felicia has the ability to instill "bad luck" around others - this comes in handy when fighting crime! Origin Felicia Hardy is an only child and was born to Lydia and Walter Hardy. They were a wealthy family living in Queens, New York. Her father was a “travel salesman” and would go away on many business trips, leaving her mother to raise Felicia mainly by herself. However, her father would constantly encourage her to be the best at what she does. However, her mother was not satisfied with “her best” and always pushed Felicia to win first place. Felicia would find interest in extracurricular activities such as cheer leading and gymnastics. When Felicia was thirteen years old, one day during cheer leading practice her mother informs her that her father had died in a plane crash over the Andes Mountains in South America. However, Felicia would eventually discover that her father was an infamous cat burglar in the newspapers, which allowed her to piece together the reason for her father’s “business trips.” One day, when Felicia was mugged, she learned of the excitement that comes in her father’s career. She decides to learn self defense and enrolls in a martial arts class. There, she is trained by Miyagi Kanryo in the art of Okinawa Goju Ryu. Felicia also takes the time to learn how to pick locks and crack open safes. As a freshman at Empire State University, she was date raped by her boyfriend, Ryan. Horrified and angered that he had stolen her life, and even though she knew the consequences, she decided that she was going to murder him. Felicia decided to set her studies aside and underwent rigorous trainings, learning other different styles of fighting and after several months, was ready. She set out to find him, but he died in a car crash while he was drunk. She was angry that she could not fulfill her desire to kill him, so she decided to follow her father's footsteps. Felicia then decided to make a costume and steals many valuable items. Felicia then decided to don the “Black Cat” identity because of a few reasons, cats have nine lives and land on their feet, crossing a black cat is bad luck, she is a cat burglar, she has a pet black cat named Onyx, and her father was the Black Cat. Major Story Arcs Felicia learned that her father was dying and was determined to not let his lasting moments be in a jail cell. She decided to break her father out of prison, but with careful planning at first. She breaks into the police station in order to gain information on criminals that will work for hire. Felicia would quickly cross paths with Spider-Man and she is forced to fend him off, succeeding and escaped from Spider-Man. As she was breaking her father out of prison she crosses paths with Spider-Man again, however Felicia was prepared this time. Even though Felicia had a hatred towards men since her date rape incident, she felt she had a special bond with Spider-Man. She had set up a trap near Spider-Man, which caused an explosion allowing Felicia and her father to escape. This was one of many tricks Felicia would use to force opponents to believe that she emits bad luck. She takes her father home to her mother and revealed that the Black Cat was his own daughter. Her father attempts to persuade her not to make the same mistake as he did and follow him down a dark path. Felicia ignores it and leaves him and her mother alone. Meanwhile, Spider-Man discovers that Felicia Hardy is the Black Cat when he goes through Walter Hardy’s profile. Spider-Man would meet up with the Black Cat outside her home. The two begin fighting as Felicia does not want to end up in jail. Their battle ensues across the rooftops until they both slip off. However, Spider-Man was able to grab on to the ledge and hold on to Felicia. However, she slips and falls to what appeared to Spider-Man, to be her death. Felicia had become depressed after nearly dying, her father’s death, and that she believed no one would recognize her skills except Spider-Man. Felicia continued her criminal career and became one of the most notorious Cat Burglars in the city. However, her real plan was to force Spider-Man to come after her. Spider-Man had placed a Spider-Tracer on her that she could not remove. Knowing that she could never lose him with the tracer on her, she decided to lure him to a room that showed her obsession of Spider-Man with clippings of newspaper pictures of him covering the entire wall. Spider-Man decided to take Felicia to the Mitchell State Hospital and checked her in for a six month stay. Since Felicia was not really insane and was only pretending in order to avoid jail time for her crimes, she easily breaks out of the institution and continues her career as a cat burglar. Felicia moves into an apartment of her own and hides under a new alias, Felicia Harmon. She would also disguise herself with a curly black wig. Felicia went straight to work and stole an original Ehrenreich painting easily. However, she would quickly discover that she was beginning to become bored with her current lifestyle as she gained no fame and always hid in the shadows. She begins thinking about Spider-Man again and realizes how much she misses the excitement of being around him. Felicia decides to hire a sky writer and had him write a message in the sky to gain Spider-Man’s attention. The message told Spider-Man to meet her at their “first date,” to which he receives and heads straight for the place. The Black Cat begins to flirt with Spider-Man and explains to him that she wants to quit her criminal career and help him fight crime. She continues to explain the reason for breaking her father out of jail and tries to rationalize that the people she stole from were the ones who stole the item first, or that they have enough money to buy a new one. She then confesses that she would do anything just so the two of them could have a relationship together. Afterwards, she leaves him along with the painting that she stole with a note, saying that if he accepts her offer to meet her at the costume party the next night. When Spider-Man arrives to meet up with Black Cat, she reveals to him that meeting her there was so she could prove that she could aid him in fighting crime. Spider-Man and the Black Cat was forced to fight a massive amount of the criminal underworld. However, Spider-Man and Black Cat would come out on top, and Spider-Man began to believe that she was serious in becoming good. Later, Felicia decides to steal a statue from a show room despite Spider-Man’s disapproval. The owner discovers who the two really are and forced Spider-Man and Black Cat to fight. Spider-Man was shot in the leg, but he was able to beat the enemies up. Felicia had made her getaway during the crossfire, but Spider-Man chased her down to the docks, where he webs her entire body. She tells Spider-Man that she’d rather die then go to jail and forces herself into the water. Spider-Man was still wounded and was unable to locate her whereabouts. Just afterwards, Captain DeWolff came to give her amnesty for her past crimes, but was too late. Black Cat's Relationship With Spider-Man After an extended disappearance, Felicia had learned that Kingpin had a nuclear detonator that he was going to auction off. The Owl planned to use it against New York to hold the city hostage while Doctor Octopus had planned to detonate the whole city with it. Felicia decided to steal the detonator and she gave the detonator to Spider-Man, and instantly became one of Octopus' enemies. Spider-Man tore off his mechanical arms though was still able to control them mentally and had held Hardy down while his men opened fire on her. Spider-Man had gotten Felicia to the hospital in time when they started operating on her multiple bullet and knife wounds. He quickly realized just how much he really cared for her. After Felicia recovered from her injuries, they soon began a relationship. Spider-Man decides to reveal his true identity to Felicia and brought her to his apartment. However, Felicia had a hard time accepting, as she could not understand why he wanted to live a civilian when he could use his Spider-Man alter-ego to become rich and famous. Spider-Man became hurt that she only loved Spider-Man and not Peter Parker. However, Spider-Man rationalizes it that since his previous relationships ended because he had to keep his identity from them, but with Felicia, she loved his alter-ego. Their attentions were quickly drawn to muggers harassing an innocent person. Spider-Man tells her to wait there, but she decides to tag along anyways. The two of them easily defeat the muggers, however Felicia shows signs of fatigue due to just recently being released from the hospital. While Spider-Man was battling against Mr. Hyde, she decided to join the battle in hopes of proving to Spider-Man that she could take care of herself in battle. However, Spider-Man continued to shout orders at her, and despite her knowing his good intentions, became angered that he was giving her orders and continued to try and protect her. Black Cat decides to try and engage against Mr. Hyde herself, to which she realizes that she was overwhelmed by his strength. Spider-Man intertwined to try and help, but was punched through the roof. Felicia had believed that Spider-Man was killed on that punch. Cobra arrives and battles Mr. Hyde, where Black Cat sees an opening and trips him off his feet. After a near death experience, Felicia feared that the lack of powers (her “bad luck” was due to carefully planned traps set by Felicia herself to make her opponents believe she emits “bad luck”) would make her a liability for Spider-Man and was terrified that Spider-Man would be devastated if she were to die. During the Secret Wars, when Spider-Man had left, Felicia seeks a way to gain superpowers to aid Spider-Man in battle. She first tried Tony Stark, only to discover he was missing. She then tried Hank Pym, who did not return any of her calls. She then went to the Avengers and the Fantastic Four for help and was rejected. Felicia would seek out a mysterious person who agreed to help her gain superpowers by using Dr. Farley Stillwell’s latent gene technique, similar to the Scorpion and the Fly. Felicia gained a latent mutant ability that allows her to emit bad luck to those around her. Felicia would soon learn that the mystery person was really the Kingpin, and Felicia was not pleased to hear the news. She had new powers, but was ashamed to tell Spider-Man. Angered that she had fallen into a trap by the Kingpin, and feared that he may call upon her for errands, and also fearing how Spider-Man would react if she told him. Felicia decides that it was best of she did not tell Spider-Man at all. She also thought up of an excuse if he asked her how she gained her new powers, she would just tell him that they were latent and she had them for a long time. She also decides that if the Kingpin orders her to do something, she just would not do it. She continued to search for Spider-Man, and while searching for Spider-Man in the Avengers Mansion, Vision offered her a membership to join the Avengers, but she turned it down. When Spider-Man finally returned from the Secret Wars with his new symbiote costume, her new probability manipulation power were starting to affect Spider-Man already, which is exactly what the Kingpin wanted. The Break Up Eventually Spider-Man would discover her powers and confronts her about them. Felicia decides to just tell Spider-Man exactly how, why, and who she gained the powers from. She then reveals that she gained the powers from the Kingpin which stunned Spider-Man. She tries to rationalize with him that the reason she did it was so she could continue sharing their adventures together. Spider-Man then begins to lecture her about going to the Kingpin for power, then all of a sudden the roof that they were standing on collapsed. Spider-Man realizes that the accidents he had been having were caused by Felicia’s latent ability. The two agreed to meet up with the Kingpin on the next night. The next night, Spider-Man arrives at Felicia’s apartment, where she gives him a cloth version of the black costume ( Spider-Man had just gotten rid of the black suit because he discovered it was a symbiote). Spider-Man turned down her gift, and the two headed for the Kingpin's building. However, the two were encountered by the Spot atop of Kingpin's building. The Spot was successful in fending off Spider-Man and the Black Cat, so the two of them decided to regroup and try again later. However, Black Cat decides to go to Kingpin’s place by herself. Once she arrived, she discovered that Spider-Man had thought of the same idea. However, she decided to let him deal with the Spot alone while she headed straight for the Kingpin. Felicia finally confronted the Kingpin who revealed his plans to her. He tells her that he had wanted to get revenge on her and Spider-Man for stealing the detonator and letting it fall into Dr. Octopus’ hands, which forced the Kingpin to leave “his” city. Felicia then asks how giving her powers would help him gain his revenge, to which he explains that her powers cause bad luck to anyone around her. And the longer a person like Spider-Man stays around her, they would eventually die. Horrified at the news, she runs out of the building as Spider-Man enters to fight the Kingpin. Felicia decided to think by herself, and eventually concluded that she had to break up with Spider-Man in order to keep him out of harms way. Just as she was about to break up with Spider-Man, he tells her that they are too different for each other, and that he could not handle the fact that she loved Spider-Man more then Peter Parker. Spider-Man then breaks up with Felicia. She was in shock and was angered that he was the one who broke up with her. Spider-Man realized something was wrong, and with the help of Doctor Strange he was able to take the hex off Spider-Man. However, this also altered the hex's source and altered Felicia’s powers, making her new addition of powers super strength, agility, balance, super vision, and claws, all much like a cat. Felicia thought this was a reinvention of her, so she rekindled her relationship with Parker and stood by Spider-Man as he was accused of murder. They tracked down this elaborate scheme and fought a mercenary called Foreigner. Parker thought his life was falling apart when he came to discover that Felicia was in fact causing this. He also discovered that Felicia had never forgiven him for their break up and had started a relationship with Foreigner to gain revenge against Spider-Man. However, Felicia would eventually realize her true feelings for Peter and double crossed the Foreigner. Felicia decides to leave the country and went to Europe to start a new life. This forced Peter to find a new relationship with Mary Jane Watson. Years later, Hardy returned to America and learned from Venom that Peter had gone on to marry Mary Jane, and started physically threatening her. She also started going out with Flash Thompson to spite Peter. They had cared for each other, but he broke up with Felicia as soon as he discovered her secret and Felicia became a better person by making amends with Peter and becoming friends with Mary Jane. Spider-Man was later exposed to a device which removed all his powers by the Chameleon, Felicia had helped in finding the device and after battling the Scorpion and the Tarantula (Luis Alvarez), was successful in restoring his powers, however she had lost her own powers in the process. In order to regain her abilities, Felicia purchased equipment from the Tinkerer to help incorporate her abilities into her costume and occasionally teams up with Spider-Man. During Maximum Carnage, Felicia aided Spider-Man and Venom in their battle against Carnage. Felicia briefly accepted Venom’s beliefs that they had to kill Carnage to stop him. However, she decides to go down the same road as Spider-Man and helped him stop Carnage without murdering him. New Life Felicia later creates her own private investigations business called Cat’s Eye Private Investigations. The P.I. office specializes in body guarding, background checks, bounty hunting, and installing burglarproof security systems. She is also residing in Los Angeles, California. Felicia gets a call from her friend Meg who was panicking that her friend Tracia had not checked in for a while. Felicia agrees to return to New York to investigate her disappearance and was also hoping to see Spider-Man again. It has been five years since the two of them were in a romantic relationship, and Felicia was torturing herself over the fact that she was too spoiled back then, and it cost her a relationship with Spider-Man. She found a link between Tracia and a movie star named Hunter Todd, so she decided to head over to the Soho Grand Hotel where he was staying at. While there, Felicia sees a person creeping around the window and she decides to attack it. It turns out to be Spider-Man. After the two recover, Felicia asks for Tracia Lane while Spider-Man asks for a teenage boy who died named Donald Phillips. Todd’s reaction assured the two that he knew the answers. Suddenly, Todd begins to overdose on Heroine, and the same happens to the woman he was with. Someone begins talking through the phone, to which Spider-Man answers. It was Mr. Brownstone, and he tells him that he is giving them an overdose and hangs up. The two of them argue for a bit on the rooftop, then they decide to go patrol the city until they see smoke from a building. They engage against the villain and defeats her easily. Afterwards they were thanked by Garrison Klum, and Spider-Man believes that man is Mr. Brownstone. Felicia and Spider-Man decides to ask the girl they just arrested who hired her to kill the guy, she eventually gives in when Spider-Man annoyed her too much. When they arrived to the house of the person who hired the hit, they discovered him and his wife chopped to bits, but the baby was allowed to live. Both of them decided to scare Mr. Brownstone, but that was all Spider-Man had planned. He said there was not enough evidence to catch him, and it angered Felicia. They get into a heated argument and then a fight. Felicia was able to web Spider-Man to the floor and she went after Brownstone herself. Felicia sneaks into Brownstone’s place and tries to kill him, but he was not in his bed. He was behind her, but he didn’t pose a threat. He distracted Black Cat by talking to her while he heated up some Heroine. After he was done, he teleported the Heroine into Felicia causing her to overdose on Heroine. Felicia was now helpless and in Brownstone’s hands. Brownstone was attempting to rape her. However, Brownstone was killed before he could rape her and Felicia is charged with murdering Brownstone. Meanwhile, Spider-Man teams up with Daredevil to break Felicia out of jail. When they arrive, they discovered Francis Klum ( Garrison’s brother) holding Felicia, he makes Daredevil and Spider-Man fight each other and teleports out of Ryker’s. It is revealed that Francis was the one who killed Garrison, and while he was teleporting Felicia, he told her about the times his brother sexually harassed him. He tells her that he saved her because he was sick of what Garrison was doing. Felicia wanted to get help for Francis, but he is scared that he will get the death penalty. However, she assures him that he is not to worry because he is sick. She tells Francis about the time she was raped, and what she went through afterwards. Spider-Man and Daredevil arrive to the bridge that they were talking at, and sees flashes of Gwen and tries to prevent the same from happening to Felicia. Spider-Man was hurt when Francis teleported Felicia’s mask into his neck, then picks up a gun and points it at Felicia for betraying him. Spider-Man webs the gun, but he falls off the bridge and Spider-Man could not catch him, but Francis teleports mid-air and disappears. The next day, Peter and Felicia takes a walk in the park and she was ready to tell him what had happened to her during college. Felicia would later team up with Spider-Man and Puma to battle against Stegron. Stegron was planning to devolve the entire population of New York City. Eventually the three of them would be successful in defeating Stegron. Shortly after, Puma and Black Cat began a romantic relationship. While they were in bed together, it was noticeable that Felicia may have some feelings for Peter still. When Peter revealed to the world that he was Spider-Man, it greatly disappointed Felicia because she believed that they shared a "sexy" bond as she was one of the few who knew his true identity. Civil War / The Initiative: In the Civil War, Felicia joins Heroes For Hire but joins purely for money, apprehending any unregistered heroes and bounties. Black Cat discovered that Misty’s old nemesis named Vienna is supplying super felons fake I.D.'s. Black Cat and the Heroes for Hire burst into action. It turned out to be a trap and they engage against other villains too. Then Paladin, Shang-Chi, and Orka arrive to help them. It turns out that Vienna was working undercover for Misty, and afterwards they add a few new members to the Heroes for Hire. Goliath had recently died during the Civil War, and Misty was enraged by it. The whole team went to talk to Tony Stark about it. Misty tells Stark that she will try and bring Captain America in peacefully. Black Cat and the Heroes for Hire decide to seek the help from Pixiu the Dragon in Chinatown. However, it was not too helpful as Captain America and his team are shielded by magic. Misty receives a call to investigate a crime scene. They arrive at an organ transplant operation room, and decided to have Mr. Fantastic check it. He discovers that it is a Skrull DNA. Afterwards, they continue their mission and were able to locate Captain America’s hideout. They try to talk Captain America into surrendering peacefully, but he declines. Paladin then turns on the team and tries to arrest Captain America. A battle ensues and Captain America’s shield misses Paladin and hits Black Cat. Eventually, Paladin comes out on top and is calling SHIELD to come pick up Captain America. As it turn out, Captain America had switched places with Paladin during the confusion, and the person on the SHIELD helicarrier is really Paladin. Captain America parted ways with Heroes for Hire and they later discover that the black-market was surgically implanting super humans with Skrull organs. Meanwhile, Misty’s old nemesis, Ricadonna, broke out of prison and sent a bomb to Heroes for Hire headquarters. She then put a hit on members of the Heroes for Hire, except for Black Cat. The team decides to split up to look for Ricadonna. Misty and Colleen went to get answers out of Toddler, while Black Cat and the others went after Ricadonna. Once humbug discovers where Ricadonna is, they all alerted Misty and Colleen, then the team went after her. A battle ensues against the super powered villains, and they eventually defeat Ricadonna. However, her lab was about to explode and Black Cat and the Heroes for Hire were able to escape via underground tunnel. Tony Stark then funded a new base of operations for the Heroes for Hire, and they get their first customer, a kid. He claims that super powered criminals stole his robot. Misty forces Humbug to go investigate with the kid. Meanwhile, Black Cat and the others are offered a job to bust up some criminals for robbing the man’s diamonds, and that he wanted them back. Meanwhile, Humbug and the kid were captured by the villains who stole his robot (which looked like Dr. Doom). Eventually Shang-Chi and Orka arrive to help him. However, the Dr. Doom robot kills Orka and Shang-Chi beats everyone up out of anger. After that everyone regroups and realizes that without the diamonds, they were not paid by the man. Black Cat recently re-appeared after a several year absence. It seems she abandoned her private detective business and has gone back to thievery. However, it was revealed she is working for an unknown employer and things may not be exactly as they appear. Grim Hunt Felicia was caught between the Kravinoffs when she hears that a cat burglar has been snooping around New York. She later finds out that the cat burglar is Vasili Holpkin Sidorov, a servant of the Kravinoff family. Felicia learns that he has kidnapped her mother Lydia in order for her to steal an item for the Kravinoff's family for their plans. Felicia agrees and after she steals the item, Felicia comes up with a plan to rescue her mother. Using a decoy, Felicia managed to sneak into the Kravinoff's mansion and rescued her mother after disarming a bomb strapped to her chair. Big Time In Spider-Man: Big Time in an attempt to join The Avengers Black Cat asks to team-up with Spider-Man to get in their good graces. He agrees and she becomes his sidekick. They team up to go after the new Hobgoblin who has stolen reverbium from Spidey's new employers. Together they break in to the Kingpin's building - as they escape the building is brought down. Spidey is upset that Black Cat managed to steal something as they fled and tells her he can't work with her anymore. Power and Abilities When the Black Cat was first introduced into comics, she was just an average human being that possessed no super-human abilities. However, she was an highly skilled martial artist and a top athlete and gymnast. After she decided to become a crime fighter and began her relationship with Spider-Man, she realized that her lack of super-human power may cause Spider- Man to be killed should he become over run by an enemy. Category:Protagonists Category:Neutral